The Vatican’s secretary of state has called Ireland’s referendum result “a defeat of Christian principles”.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Pope’s top lieutenant, was the first from the Vatican to remark about Ireland’s referendum; along with being the highest-level reaction from the Catholic church.

Cardinal Parolin discussed the dismay with which the upper reaches of the Vatican reacted to Ireland’s referendum, having campaigned against it’s approval in Ireland.

“I am very sad because of this result — the Church needs to strengthen its efforts to spread its message,” Cardinal Parolin told reporters on the margins of a Centesimus Annus conference in the Vatican.

“The church must take account of this reality, but in the sense that it must strengthen its commitment to evangelisation. I think that you cannot just talk of a defeat for Christian principles, but of a defeat for humanity.”

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin had less drastic things to say about the outcome, “We [the church] have to stop and have a reality check, not move into denial of the realities. We won’t begin again with a sense of renewal, with a sense of denial. […] I think it is a social revolution.”

Diarmuid Martin said he voted no, and added: “I ask myself, most of these young people who voted yes are products of our Catholic school system for 12 years. I’m saying there’s a big challenge there to see how we get across the message of the church,” he added.